Saturday, December 26, 2009

University Campuses OR battle fields ?

It is painful to see that in Andhra Pradesh the premium institutions of higher learning viz Universities are suffering very sadly from the menace of political agitations. Post Graduate students, whose talent and intellectual potential is needed for the constructive participation in the development of socio-economic strength of the country, is being calously misused by the confused politicians of today. Agitations should be controlled and monitored and also steered by the professional politicians ( elected leaders ), who wish to represent the society and who have adopted politics to do some service to th people. It is the responsibiloity of the Government consistng of elected leaders to provide good governennce alongwith safety and security to the lives of common man. But what do we see these days ? Politicians are provoking the youth ( of all ages ) to adopt violent methods to support their reasonable/unreasonable demands. Students of all ages and all sections ( rural/urban) are being misguided by their psuedo-patriotism to fulfill their selfish motives. these days it is all the power game.Agitations should be led and fought among the politicians and poloitical parties and among common people in the socity who have more important tasks of serving the nation in their capasities. Politicians have to draw a line for the students so as not to participate in such destructive and negative anti-social activities which may cause harm to the fellow citizens.University Campuses are very sacred places of learning and the santity of these temples of learning have to be protected by the social system which includes political system in a democracy. Students should be kept away from participating in politics and they should be enouraged to build their academic career to become outstanding intellectual. We need the best out of the youth, today. Universities should be able to produce the best student products who can run the country in their future. Unfortunately, these days campuses are more involved in unacademic (political ) activites ( provoked by politicicians ) . We have 450 Universities( approximately ) compared to 1500 Universities in China, but the kind of intellectuals we are producing, is not satisfactory or proportional to the potential. Knwoedge commissions and so many other academic evaluatory agencies have been trying to suggest ways to improve this situation ( from time to time ) but we are unable to improve the attitude of the politicians nor education poicy makers. We could not drive this idea in to the mionds of the present day politicians that students participation in active politics on university campus is suicidal to the career of the students. Off late students union elections have been banned in some of the universities (at least in south ), but this has not improved the situation as national and regional political parties have established their students wings in every university and are creating a non- academic atmosphere on campuses. The political rivalry is as strong as among the main political parties even on campuses and they settle their scores on campus in exhibiting theirpower.On going Telengana agitation is a typical example of provacative destruction and disruption of normal life of common man, due to the avoidable intervention of University students whose academic careers are at stake now, because they have already incurred loss of a semester and the present ( January to April ) semester also is in visible danger. The students of these (agitating ) universites may not be able to qualify to swrite national and international level tests to proceed to higher studies within and outside India.Some good samaritan has to convince the politicians ( of political parties ) involved in negotiations for a separate statehood to spare the university students fromt he ongoing turmoil and to request the students to return to the class rooms to pursue their studies to achieve their determined goal. The politicians may ask the students community to leave politics for themselves as it is their area to solve the problems of the public. They are competent enough to find ways to solve all sorts of problems including the problem of separate statehood. Also politicians should see that normalcy is restored on campuses. it is the duty of the political parties to ensure safety and security to the public porperty, by forcning the government mechanism to provide enough protection. Even University Campus also comes under the perview of the government if it comes to the issue of law and order. Campuses cannot be left to so called frenzy of unruly mobs, if they occupy the campus, to indulge in damaging public property and misbehaving with public on road. Such elements have to be dealt with sternly and they must be brought to the book. Intervention of human rights commission, when government deals with unruly youth on campus is a serious issue to be debated in the interest of public or tax payer.It has unfortunately observed that, people are scared to walk on the streets, to ride their vehicles, to leave their houses locked, to continue business. The continuous Bundhs - declared by zso called poloitical parties these days have created havoc and have caused immense inconvenience to the public life. This situation is unwsarranted and against the norms of a civilized society in a demoracy. I earnestly appeal to the political parties to educate and ecourage the students to return to classes and to handle the politics themselves.

3 comments:

I think time has come when politics and elections should be completely removed from Universities and other places of learning. After completing their education, they can enter any field. Hostels should be given to students with clean image and any sort of dadagiri should be dealt firmly. Only then our Universities shall be true temples of learning.

I am delighted to see yr comment sir. I know there are people who have concern for the role of Universities and the positive and constructive role of youth. Let us discuss this issue further.M Venkateshwar